


She's A Rebel

by Jacketarearmpants



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Musicians, Celebrities, Concerts, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Punk Eleven | Jane Hopper, References to Drugs, Secret Relationship, Strangers to Lovers, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:42:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26536756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacketarearmpants/pseuds/Jacketarearmpants
Summary: Mike Wheeler, primary beat producer and member of rap group The Party, is hired to help out an up and coming pop punk band, Double Zero, with some production on their new album.Jane "Eleven" Hopper is cautiously excited about inviting someone from a different musical genre into her album development and is hoping that, at the very least, she can tolerate Mike's presence.AKA the modern music AU no one asked for.
Relationships: Dustin Henderson/Suzie, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Kali Prasad, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Robin Buckley/Original Female Character(s), Steve Harrington & The Party, Steve Harrington/Kali Prasad, Will Byers/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. From Chicago

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is the musician AU I've been working on for quite some time now! I'm going to probably update this one slower than my other AUs, Gifted and catch me if i fall.

**_February 10th  
Chicago Illinois _ **

“MAKE SOME FUCKING NOISE, CHICAGO!” Mike screams into the microphone as twenty thousand voices ring back in a cacophony of disembodied screams and yells. He stops to take in the roar of the crowd as he glances around the sold-out arena.

“I CAN’T FUCKING HEAR YOU!” Dustin bellows next to him, his voice echoing across the crowd, eliciting more cheers from the legions of fans before them. 

“LET FUCKING DO IT!” Will shouts into his own mic, clutching it tightly and showing off his intricate knuckle tattoos as the four of them step to the forefront of the stage.

“I DON’T THINK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS KNOW WHAT A GOOD TIME IS!” Lucas adds, to finally cap off the ceremonial opening that starts each one of The Party’s concerts. 

“WELL—” Mike begins, turning to Dustin. “—LET’S FUCKING SHOW THEM!” 

“HELL YEAH!” Dustin shouts. He smiles back at Mike, and the beat begins to sound around the four of them. 

As the music begins to thump into his chest, Mike smiles and starts to do the one thing he knows he's good at.

Put on a show.

Mike has been a performer for his entire life, from making dumb jokes with his sister Nancy to later becoming DM of his DnD group. When he was a freshman in high school, he found out that he naturally had a good ear for music and began messing with different music editing and production software. Pretty soon, he became a music producer in his spare time, helping fund hundreds of shitty rap careers in his high school by producing minimalist but still pretty good beats.

That was how The Party was born. One day, when he was hanging out with his friends, Dustin, Lucas, and Will, Mike put on one of his newer beats, just to get a basic reaction, and that was when he realized that he wasn’t alone in his musical talents. Lucas’ insane flow and smooth delivery came out to play, Dustin's witty punchlines and overall likable demeanor made him a naturally charismatic performer, and Will’s natural artistic ability showed through in the way he delivered his own lines. From that day forward, Mike stopped producing beats for others and formed The Party, a rap collective of himself and the three others.

Through most of their sophomore and junior years of high school, they were pretty underground. Their first two mixtapes were popular in towns like Hawkins and the greater Midwest rap scene, but not so much elsewhere. They managed to perform at some local underground clubs in nearby Chicago, which helped get their name out, but they largely remained an unknown group. 

That changed during their senior year of high school, when one of their singles, _Fireball,_ blew up overnight and became a nationwide streaming hit on services like Spotify and SoundCloud. In a couple months, The Party went from a rather promising underground rap group to four of the hottest prospects in hip-hop. From then on, it's been nothing but non-stop success and ascending superstardom. They were named members of the same XXL freshman class, something that no other rap group has done before or since. Their first album, _Take Initiative,_ released on Mike's nineteenth birthday and became a smash hit, destroying records and becoming one of the largest streaming debuts ever for any artist. They’ve been selling out arenas and stadiums across the country. It's hard to believe that a bunch of twenty-year-olds from a small town in Indiana have captivated the musical attention of the nation.  


* * *

  
“That was AWESOME!” Steve greets the boys as they enter the green room. 

“Thanks, man.” Dustin smiles, a blunt in the corner of his mouth. He pauses to light it before taking a hit, then expels a cloud of smoke. “It felt really fucking good.”

“Yeah!” Will accepts the blunt from Dustin and takes a hit.

“Hey,” Steve asks, “before we actually start celebrating and going hard, can I just talk to you guys real quick?” As the group’s manager, Steve always has things to share, from tour, details to appearance dates. 

Lucas grabs a glass and pours himself a drink of whiskey. “Sure,” he says.

“I know Mike is already going to New York City after this,” Steve says. “What are the rest of you doing?”

“I'm going to California.” Dustin flashes a toothy grin. “Gotta see Suzie for Valentine’s.”

“I'm staying here in Chicago,” Lucas says, rubbing the tattoo of The Party’s logo on his hand. The tattoos were Dustin's idea, and they all got matching ones on the backs of their left hands after their first album was released. “Going to hit some clubs and try to get some.”

“I'm actually heading home to Hawkins,” Will says. “My mom wants to see me again.”

“Speaking of Joyce,” Dustin interjects, “How is she?” 

Will smiles. “She’s doing great! She’s dating this new guy.” 

“That’s awesome!” Mike grins. Joyce used to be like a second mom to him. “Hope it works out!”

“So just Mike is going to be in New York.” Steve plops down next to Mike on the couch. “When are you going to be available when you're there?”

“On the fourteenth I have an interview with Nancy,” Mike explains. “She's interviewing me for an article.” He pauses to take a drink of whiskey before continuing. “But I can stay a couple extra days. I don't mind—I don't hate New York.” 

“Okay, good.” Steve nods. “I need you to meet with Robin on the fifteenth.”

“Robin?” The image of the group’s other manager comes to mind. “What does she need?” 

“Someone's apparently interested in collaborating with us, so they want to start getting the ball rolling on that.”

“Really?” Mike smiles. He enjoys collaborating with other artists, particularly ones in different genres. “And by us, you mean the entire group or just me?” 

“We shall see.” Steve shrugs and turns back to the full group to address them. “Because if it's the entire band, I'll let you guys know. But if it's just one of you guys, I'm pretty sure we'll figure something out to make sure all of you get credit. But this only works if we’re all okay with it.”

Dustin shrugs. “I’m okay with it. We've all done individual things before. Lucas has guest features. Will sells art on the side. I released an entire mixtape under my own name. I think we're okay with the others doing solo projects. Right?”

The others nod in unison. 

“So now that that's settled...” Steve beams in agreement before grabbing a bottle of champagne. “Let's get FUCKING hammered.”  


* * *

  
Even though there’s a party raging inside Dustin’s apartment, Mike doesn’t feel like joining in. Instead, he sits on the fire escape overlooking the street. He normally isn’t this nervous. Mike Wheeler is nothing if not the life of the party: always downing drinks, doing dumb shit, and almost landing in jail more times than he can count.

But tonight, he just doesn't feel like it. He had a beer or two, but everything else—such as Lucas pounding shots, Dustin freestyling, and Will hooking up with some random guy in the bathroom—just doesn't feel right. There's something off inside Mike. He doesn't know what it is. So being in a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable room full of people just seems awful.

“Hey man, everything okay?”

“What?” Mike looks up at the new arrival joining him on the fire escape. “Yeah Lucas, everything’s cool”

Lucas unsteadily plops down next to Mike. “Are you sure?”

“I just wanted to sit outside.” Mike shrugs, swinging his dangling legs.

“You know it's like thirty degrees outside?” Lucas says, pointing at the cloud his breath makes in the cold night air.

“Lucas, you know there’s such a thing as a coat, right?” Mike tugs at the hood of his jacket, which is pulled over his messy black curls.

“Just felt like busting your chops.” Lucas chuckles and elbows Mike in the side. “Anyway, you still haven't answered my question. What are you doing out here?”

“Just felt like coming out here.” Mike sighs. “What about you?”

“It was getting too fucking hot in there. I needed to take a break.” 

“Okay.” Mike breathes out almost wistfully, the fog of his breath curling into the night sky.

“Mike. Are you sure everything’s okay? Something's off with you.”

“I don't know.” Mike shrugs. “I'm just kinda down.”

“We had a great show,” Lucas says, nudging Mike with his elbow “And we don't have another one for a couple weeks, which gives us plenty of time to get fucked up.”

“You’re right.” Mike pauses to think for a second. “I think it’s the thing with Steve.”

“The whole New York thing?” 

“It's making me nervous and fucking hyped at like the same time,” Mike rambles. “On one hand, I fucking love doing features. On the other hand, I'm fucking terrified.”

“Mike, I hate to sound like an asshole, but you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Lucas slurs in drunken wisdom. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna meet with Robin and some random manager for some artist you've never heard of. They're gonna ask you to drop some random feature verse on some song. It's gonna get big and it's gonna pay the rent on your other apartment for a couple months or years.” 

“That sounds about right” Mike starts to smile, remembering all the previous times he’s been featured on another artist's song. 

“Hey, who knows.” Lucas smirks. “it could be some punk band and you get yourself a big titty goth girlfriend.”

“Lucas.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to throw you off this fire escape,” Mike deadpans.

“I'm just spitting facts.”

“Sure you are.” Mike chuckles. “I think I might head home a little early, if that’s okay with you guys.”

“Dude, it's no problem. Trust me.” Lucas smiles and claps Mike on the back. “Just take the fire escape down, you don't want to go inside.” 

“What's happening inside?” Mike asks, just as a series of crashing sounds comes from inside the apartment.

“Two words.” Lucas holds up two fingers and points at them, one at a time. “Steve, cocaine.” 

“Yeah, I'll take the fire escape down.” Mike climbs to his feet and looks down at Lucas. “Tell the others I'll see them tomorrow. We'll get a giant hangover breakfast.” 

“That sounds good.” Lucas smiles up at Mike. “Take care, Mike.” 

“Catch you later, Lucas.” Mike bounds down the fire escape stairs, the metal clanging under his footsteps. He eventually hits street level and stops to take in a couple deep breaths as Lucas’ words bounce around in his mind.

_He's right._

_I have nothing to be worried about._

_I just performed a sold-out show to over twenty-thousand fans._

_I get paid to do what I love._

_There’s nothing to be worried about._

_I’m Mike Fucking Wheeler._

With one final smirk, he heads toward his apartment.


	2. To Toronto

**_February 11th  
Toronto, Canada _ **

“TORONTO!” Kali screams in her mic, her bass slung low and heavily tattooed arms pointing over the crowd packed into the small arena. “YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE, SO LET’S GET THIS SHIT STARTED!”

“What song should we play first?” El poses the question half to her bandmates and half to the audience, who answer back with a roar. El can't help the way her face splits into an ear-to-ear grin at the sound of her devoted fans. 

“I’m thinking _Butterfly._ ” Kali smirks against her microphone, earning sounds of approval for the crowd. 

“That’s a good fucking choice, Kali.” El beams as she adjusts her guitar and steps up to the lead microphone. “Max.”

“Yep!” Max grins from behind her drumset, her orange hair flipping dramatically over her shoulder. 

“Let’s blow these fuckers away.” El flashes Max a thumbs up and gets a matching thumbs up from the drummer in return. “Count us in for _Butterfly._ ”

“1..2..1 2 3 4!” Max taps against her cymbal, launching the stage into a roaring performance. 

At the sound of Kali’s bassline and her own guitar riffs, El enters her favorite place of existence. The place where nothing else matters except the music and the show.

You wouldn’t expect the daughter of the former New York City Chief of Police to be the frontwoman for popular pop punk band Double Zero, but El Hopper is anything but normal. Double Zero is the project that, for all intents and purposes, saved El’s life.

Before Double Zero, El had a rather complicated life. It started out perfectly normal, El living with her mother and father in New York City. Everything changed when she was 12. Her mother got cancer and died shortly after, leaving El and Hop behind. Neither of them knew how to deal with the grief. Hopper began throwing himself into his police duty, thereby neglecting El, and El fell into the wrong crowd. She began to do drugs, rob stores, and do things that even now she’s still ashamed of. The volatile combination of neglect and bad influence erupted when she was 14.

Feeling that nothing she could do would matter anymore, El ran away from home. Rumor has it that Hopper nearly locked down the entire city looking for his daughter, but she was still long gone by the time he noticed her absence. She hitchhiked her way across the country to Chicago, and for the next year she lived on the streets, going in and out of various homeless shelters, group homes, and even friends' apartments.

That all changed when El met Kali at one of those shelters. Kali was like El, a fellow runaway, this time all the way from London, but the two of them became fast and close friends. Pretty soon Max, another runaway from California, joined their group, and the three of them became inseparable. When El was 16 and Kali managed to secure steady income and a place to live, they decided to form a band. As El finished her junior year of high school, Double Zero started performing at punk shows in Chicago. In all honesty, El didn't expect to become some superstar, but in modern music, all she needed was one big break.

That big break came when El was 17 one of their songs, _peace of me,_ was overheard by a record executive named Axel and he began promoting them heavily. Eventually, he became their manager, and they've been on the track to success ever since. Their first album _Double Zero,_ released last year, was a smash hit. Kali has already talked to them about planning their second album, with it tentatively slated for a release next year. They may not be global superstars but at 20 years old, El, with the rest of Double Zero, has the rest of the music world on notice.  


* * *

  
“Great show, girls!” Max says as they navigate through the back hallways of the arena, still coming down from the adrenaline rush.

“Hey!” Axel’s familiar voice echoes through the halls, stopping the band.

El turns to see their manager quickly running in from the side, his bright pink mohawk clashing hilariously with his gray business suit. “Hey Axel,” she says. “What’s up?”

“I have a temporary office set up.” He points over his shoulder. “I just need to meet with you three about something”

“Yeah sure,” Kali says as the other two nod in agreement.

“Follow me.” Alex leads them to a separate section away from the main stage, where they enter a small room with a desk and a couple chairs. “Alright, have a seat. And by the way, great FUCKING show! You guys tore the house down!”

The three band members and their manager take their seats.

“Thanks, Axel.” Max smiles. “Is everything okay?” 

“Actually, everything’s great,” Axel excitedly begins. “I've been contacting a couple people in the past couple days and I finally got a meeting set up. But let me just start with laying out some stuff.” He turns to Kali. “Kali, you know how you said that, for the first single of the next album, you wanted to do something more traditional punk?”

“Of course.” Kali smirks. A couple months ago, the band met up to discuss the direction of their new album and the possible single release schedule.

Axel shifts from Kali to Max and El. “And then Max and El had a _brilliant_ idea for the second single, they wanted to do something that could maybe get crossover play on pop radio.” Axel pauses to smile and look at the band. “The punk single is going to be the hardcore banger with high energy. The pop punk single is going to be a chance for you guys to experiment and have some fun.”

The three girls smile and nod in agreement. As much as they like their traditional elements, the idea of experimenting with other production methods has been on their mind since the beginning.

“The good news,” Axel says, “is that I'm in contact with someone to help you guys with the second single.”

El perks up. “Really? Who?”

“The Party,” Axel states. Upon realizing that further explanation is required, he continues, “They’re a rap group and they’re pretty popular. Have you guys heard of them?”

“No Axel,” Max jokes. “I listen to fucking music.” 

Axel chuckles. “They're willing to work with us and help us out with more rap and hip-hop oriented production. And I know we don't have another show for a couple weeks. So I just need at least one of you to come with me to New York so that we can meet with their manager and the person that's going to help. Who’s available to do that?”

“Sorry.” Max grimaces. “I can’t.”

“I can’t either,” Kali says. “I have plans.”

“I still have the apartment out there, so I'll be able to come!” El says.

“Cool.” Axel smiles. “So on the 15th we're meeting with one of their managers. It's just to set up future meetings. Expect more details in the coming days. Now go out and have some fucking fun. I'll see you guys soon.”  


* * *

  
El puts the finishing touches of her makeup on as she stares into the hotel bathroom mirror. She's decided to go for something neutral because when you're out at the club with the others, odds are no one's going to see your face. You're going to be too busy screaming your head off and not exactly in the light. With one final touch up with her lipstick, she leaves the bathroom and checks her phone.

_Got done a little early, Max isn’t supposed to be here for another 10 minutes. Might as well chill._

El sits down and racks her brain about the business proposition Axel gave to them. El would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy collaboration. It's part of what made their first album a hit: _Double Zero_ had features from lesser bands, and they even managed to snag a vocal cameo from Billie Joe Armstrong. So features and collaboration aren’t alien to her, but she's never collaborated with a rap or hip-hop artist before. Sure, she's familiar with what makes up a trademark beat—like the skittering hi-hats, the limited melody, or the specific placement of the kick—but that's all. However, unlike most people, El welcomes a challenge. 

From her most cursory of research, she found out that the Party is from Indiana and that their music can be best described as a combination of nerdy and hardcore. 

Her vibrating phone suddenly brings her out of her musical journey. She grabs it, seeing her father's name flash across the screen.

_I'm happy I reconnected with him._

When El was 17 and actually had her life somewhat in order, she reached out to her father. He was understandably furious—his daughter has been missing for 3 years. She was surprised he didn't sink further into darkness, but he managed to survive and came out of it a better person. As brutal as the time apart was for them, they both managed to develop separately from each other and somehow become better people. 

She quickly swipes and picks up. “What's up?”

“Hey, kid.” Hop’s gruff voice immediately puts a smile on El’s face. “How's my little rocker doing?” 

“I’m actually doing fantastic!”

“I heard your show in Toronto went well.”

“How would you know?” El asks.

“I follow all the hot new music blogs, of course.” 

“Really?” El jokes. “But yeah, the show went great.” The meeting with Axel suddenly comes to mind.

_Hop’s going to be excited about that._

“Actually,” El says, “I got some news about the next album!”

“Oh, you know you're not supposed to tell me anything about it,” Hop taunts.

El giggles. “It’s not like insider trading! We might have found someone to collaborate on the second single.”

“Like another punk band?”

“No, they’re actually a rap group.”

“Wow, hip hop?” El can hear the surprise in Hop’s voice. “Do we know them?” 

“No, I don't know that much about them yet. I just know they're called the Party.”

“That name rings a bell.”

“They're apparently from Indiana so maybe you know them,” El says before changing the subject. “Speaking of Indiana, how;s your retirement?” After Hopper retired a year ago, he decided to move back to his hometown of Hawkins, Indiana and leave the stress of New York behind.

“It's doing okay,” Hop answers meekly, clearly leaving something out. “I'm pretty good.” 

“That's the voice you use when you’re hiding something from me.”

“Since when did you become a detective?” El can't see his face but she knows he's rolling his eyes in the way that only a mildly annoyed parent could.

“Since you taught me how to detect lying when I was ten.”

“Alright, you win.” Hopper chuckles lightly. “Everything's going more than great.”

El smiles. “What happened?”

“I reconnected with my old high school sweetheart, Joyce.”

“Joyce?”

“I never really talked about her because I met your mom in college, but we reconnected and we're getting a couple drinks here and there.” Hopper pauses. “We're not full-on officially dating yet, but definitely that conversation is coming up.” 

“I’m happy for you, Dad!”

“Thanks kid,” Hopper says with pride. “Are you going to go back to Chicago now that you’re done with shows for a little bit?”

“Actually, I have to go to New York.” 

“Why?” 

“We have to meet the Party’s manager, so I have to fly to New York the day after tomorrow.” El pauses to drink some water from a nearby bottle. “But don't worry, I'll stop by that deli you like and pick you up some good stuff.”

“That's the one thing I miss about New York, the food.”

“Same, but at least I got to travel around.”

“Kid,” Hopper says. “I did my traveling when I was your age and let's just say I'm glad I settled down.”

“I'm glad you settled down too, Dad. I have to go now, Max is coming to pick me up”

“You better be safe,” Hopper says. “Goodbye. I love you, kid.”

“I'll catch you soon. I love you, Dad.” El hangs up the phone and smiles. She's so happy just to hear from someone.

“OPEN UP, EL!” Max’s loud voice and thunderous knocking disrupts El’s serene mood. “I need to inspect your outfit.”

El rolls her eyes before opening the hotel door and letting Max in.

“Did you look up the Party?” Max asks as she smoothes out her plaid skirt. 

“Just the most basic of basic,” El says. 

“Here's a picture of them.” Max pulls out her phone, taps a couple things, and turns around to show El a picture of four men that all appear to be around El’s age.

The shortest of the group is heavily covered in tattoos that rival Kali’s sleeves. However, instead of a pattern of skulls like Kali has, his tattoos are a combination of dragons, phoenixes, and other fantastical imagery. Next to him is a slightly taller man with curly hair, a toothy grin and a baseball cap. Unlike the first guy, he doesn't appear to have too many tattoos, only having what appears to be the Party's logo, a bright red dragon, on his hand. An African American man with kind eyes and a camouflage bandana stands in the center, the Party’s logo tattoo also displayed prominently on the back of his hand. Finally, the last one in the lineup catches El’s attention

“He's cute,” El says, pointing to the tallest of the group, a lanky man with shaggy black hair.

“Which one?” 

“The one on the right.”

“Is he your type?” Max asks. “I mean, I prefer this guy “ She points to the African American man.

El shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“He's taller than the rest, and we know how much you love tall guys.” Max smirks while putting her phone away.

“That was a one-time thing!”

“No it wasn’t,” Max taunts and sticks out her split tongue. 

“Okay, you got me there.” El laughs. “But he's pretty cute.” El stops to think before adding, “I hope it's him we get to collaborate with.”

“Whatever.” Max chuckles and checks her phone. “The Lyft is here.” 

El smirks as she follows Max out of the room.

_I'm going to collaborate and I'm going to kill it._

_Because I’m El fucking Hopper._

With one last deep breath, she heads towards the elevator and into a night of debauchery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave a Kudos or comment. 
> 
> The next chapter for this would not be for a while as I'm currently in the process of working on my other AUs.


End file.
